(UPDATED at 12:57 p.m. MDT July 17, 2020)
Over the last two days the primary growth of the Neiber Fire 13 miles south-southeast of Worland, Wyoming has been to the southeast, pushed by winds out of the northwest. The map above shows the predicted wind direction for Friday.
Thursday evening information from the Type 3 Incident Management Team indicated it had burned 17,545 acres of private and BLM managed land, an increase of almost 10,000 acres in two days.
The Neiber Fire is spreading through brush and short grass and is threatening facilities in the Murphy Dome Oil Field.
(Originally published at 7:10 p.m. MDT July 15, 2020)
In the 24 hours since the Neiber Fire was reported Tuesday afternoon, by 4 p.m. Wednesday it had grown to 7,800 acres according to the Bureau of Land Management. The fire is in Pistol Draw .
A Type 3 Incident Management Team has been ordered. The firefighters on the ground, including the Palouse hand crew from Idaho and the Black Hats from South Dakota, are being assisted by a DC-10 very large air tanker, large air tankers, single engine air tankers, and helicopters.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
It’s very smoky in Buffalo Wyoming today. Started last night. Does anyone know where it’s coming from? Hoping we don’t have a fire in the Big Horns.
VLATS and ships don’t put out fires
The job of all firefighters is to protect life then property. With the exception of one fire I haven’t second guessed decisions made on any fire I wasn’t on or managed. 1) I wouldn’t have enough information to make a decision. 2) wouldn’t try to ursup the role of the Incident Commander, 3) I wouldn’t have the legal or emotional responsibility to . Fire managers are not chosen by virtue of their non-fire rank. Each fire position requires a documented specific number of fire experience in certain positions and a particular amount of specialized training Incident commanders meet with their command staff at least between shifts if not more often. These folks are the best there are in their particular fields of expertise. Fire decisions are not pulled out of thin air. I fought wildland fires for a private slash burning company for one year, responsible for R & D for a wildfire equipment and supply company for two years, in various federal fire agenies for six years, at the National Interagency Fire Center for three years, and a Chief of Wildfire Operations for the Territory of Guam for two years. Finally, I was Battalion Chief for a city/rural fire district for seven years. I have 21 years of fire experience, most of it wildland and most of it command. If I won’t second guess fire decisions, I don’t think anyone without fire experience should even try. You could thank firefighters for what they do, visit their stations once in a while, and even bring cookies occasionally. They would love to see and get to know you.
It’s not as simple as having more and bigger air tankers. It does have to do with better decision making on how and when ALL resources are best utilized. No one person is an expert on how to manage fire, and sometimes a few get big. Those are the ones you hear about. You don’t hear about the vast majority of fires that get put out quickly. It does seem that many more of the large fires are getting larger than ever before. Fire Managers can do a better job of keeping large fires from becoming huge by making better decisions, and not just allowing fires to consume whole mountain ranges. This is unprecedented. The Catalina’s are a good example. There have been a handful of large fires there in the recent past, yet the Bighorn fire was allowed to burn basically the whole range. This should not be allowed to become the norm for many reasons. Unfortunately, the decisions of a few will outweigh those of the many.
Time out. Every available option was utilized on IA and early too. The chiefs letter on suppression ; followed to a T. Aircraft were among the first on scene ; Earlier than normal with air attack on scene at around 7:20….and since I have your attention , perhaps you can illustrate what you; as an aerial supervisor would or could have done differently. These wildly suggested “ actions or lack thereof ,” need to stop from the perception of the outsider.
The comments so far; to me illustrate , a lack of basic understanding of tools in the tool box , ( that are approved) and firefighting strategy and tactics.
So please … stop with the bashing and the demanding of this or that for what could’ve or should’ve or never was.
If you want a civilized discussion , give us more meat on the bone , not just catch phrases from press releases , or “ so and so heard this or that,” it’s easy to see the lack of common strategy , tactics, and terminology as well.
Until you walk a mile in another’s shoes….
I’m not questioning the IA, I’m questioning the large fire management. IMO, better decisions need to be made to prevent this from happening over and over. BTW, many, many miles.
If the chief is sincere about quick initial attack then why is she permanently closing the West Yellowstone air tanker base???
As I see it, Personnel has been cutting its “old growth” for more than a couple of decades.
I may be wrong; I often am. But ’tis true; “The Old Grey Mare, She Ain’t What She Used To Be.”
We can’t cut off our feet and expect to go for a walk.
There is something very wrong at the top decision making levels about the fire
suppression response to these small fires that turn into big fires.The Big Horn fire
in Tucson is still not stopped after decimating the Catalina Mountains.It,as well as
many other now big fires should ,and could have been stopped in their tracks but for
incompetent management decisions.This isn’t about the boots on the ground,or the
fighters in the air,it’s about a systemic disregard of the importance of putting small fires
out before they grow into costly,out of control fires,or the intentional disregard of what is left
of our natural resources in order to cut costs.That comes from the top down with no accountability to
the locals who are fed up with watching our forests being destroyed by out of control fires and politics.
Where is the 747 Super Tanker and all of the other air assets equipped to put fires out-now?